Archive for the ‘India-U.S. Relations’ Category

During India’s first nine months on the Security Council, it has worked with the United States on broad themes but often differed on country-specific issues. Council membership has a price: many votes inevitably disappoint some of India’s constituencies and international friends.

Jobs and reviving the economy will shape the 2012 U.S. election and future U.S.-India relations. During the long election season, attention will focus on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and how to deal with a rising China. India does not attract the same controversy, but the unresolved economic issues on the U.S.-India agenda will be in the spotlight.

Hillary Clinton and her distinguished team beat expectations for the U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue. They notched up some solid gains on the bilateral agenda, started two regional dialogues with strategic potential, and established some benchmarks for the next year.

For the future of U.S.-India relations, they need to tackle some of the longstanding trade and investment issues, get nuclear trade moving despite the undoubted difficulty of the nuclear liability issue, and above all – keep paying attention. This is an important but high maintenance relationship.

Photo by U.S. Embassy Delhi, http://www.flickr.com/photos/usembassynewdelhi/5951774930/sizes/m/in/photostream/

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is bringing with her an all-star team for the second round of U.S.-India Strategic Dialogue, which will take place later this year. Five heads of agencies are joining her, including the Director of National Intelligence, along with 3 officials who are one rung away from the top of their agencies. They will do useful work, but they need to make their game more ambitious.

May 1, 2011: The world’s biggest international military aircraft deal in two decades has been moving slowly through the Indian government’s procurement process. After years of discreet and not-so-discreet lobbying by aircraft manufacturers, heads of state, and everyone in between, the Indian Air Force announced on April 27 that it was short-listing the two European entries and excluding from further consideration the remaining four contestants, including two from the United States: a Boeing-led consortium with the F-18 and Lockheed Martin with the F-16.

The announcement sent shock waves through Washington. This was by far the biggest potential military sale ever contemplated with India. It had been regarded in the United States not just as a commercial bonanza at a time of economic distress, but as the opportunity to introduce a new level of operational and strategic understanding into the growing India-U.S. defense relationship. In the five months between the high of the Obama visit to Delhi and, now, the low of the aircraft decision, what have we learned about how the two countries are managing their partnership and where it is headed?

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on the accomplishments of Barack Obama’s fall 2010 visit to India, as well as work the countries still have to do.

As President Barack Obama’s plane headed eastward from New Delhi, he left India on a high. The India-U.S. partnership had been lifted out of the apparent slowdown of the past two years. The marquee announcement that the United States supported India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council had the headline-grabbing quality for which India’s policy watchers hungered.

Obama’s three-day visit produced some real accomplishments that will put more substance into the increasingly important partnership between India and the United States. It also left the two countries with a lot of work to do to realize that potential.

Originally published November 9, 2010 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Commentary. Read the entire article.

An article written by Teresita C. Schaffer on the transformation of the relationship between the United States and India.

Barack Obama’s trip to India this month will have moments of theater and high drama, and undoubtedly will produce an imposing list of “deliverables.” But its most important message is the expanding scope of the India-US partnership. Until late 2009, the Indo-US conversation, and most of the success stories in the new relationship, was confined to bilateral issues. In the past year, the two governments have begun serious conversations about security in Asia. In the coming year, the incipient discussion on global governance will become a major feature of US-India relations. For the first time, the two countries may have the ingredients needed for the strategic partnership both want.

A report by Teresita C. Schaffer for the Center for Strategic & International Studies’ Global Health Policy Center.

This report assesses the impact of U.S. engagement with India’s health sector in the past six decades. The United States’ involvement with health in independent India goes back to the earliest days. The longest involvement is through the U.S. foreign aid program, which has worked primarily with the government of India. Other parts of the United States government have also been involved, chiefly the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and both the capacity-building and research activities of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Private American institutions have been involved in India, including foundations, universities, and medically oriented businesses, as well as private Americans, including many of Indian origin. In at least one case, the recently founded Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), both the American institution represent public-private collaboration.

Originally published by CSIS in November 2010. Read the entire report.

A working paper by Teresita C. Schaffer in conjunction with the Center for a New American Security’s study on the relationship between the U.S. and India.

India and the United States have transformed their relationship in the past 20 years. Looking ahead a decade or more, this trend is likely to continue. The two countries can expect strong economic ties and a lively security relationship, including defense trade and especially stronger cooperation in the Indian Ocean. Economic issues will remain important drivers of Indian foreign policy. Cooperation on the global scene will have ups and downs, but the two countries will gradually find more areas where they can work together. As India’s international trade encompasses more sophisticated and knowledge-based products, India will pursue economic interests that do not necessarily dovetail with those of the developing countries as a group. India-Pakistan relations are likely to remain brittle. India will continue to see China as its major strategic challenge.

An article by Teresita C. Schaffer on Manmohan Singh’s fall 2009 visit to the United States.

India has become a major bilateral partner. It is the principal power in the Indian Ocean, increasingly a player in Asia-wide political and economic deliberations, with a lively security relationship with the United States. The United States had $61 billion in bilateral goods trade with India in 2007, the most recent available year. Additionally, India exported approximately $19 billion in software and related services to the United States in 2007, making the United States India’s top trading partner and India a significant trading partner for the United States.

Originally published November 23, 2009 by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Critical Questions. Read the entire article.